Considering how popular the Mixamp is I can't believe they would stop production of the current model months before the release of their new model. Being that the sound card is the least expensive part of this set up I suppose I can get the Recon3D and be on the lookout for the Mixamp 3 or restocking of the current model. I just don't want to wait until 2013 to get all of this. If it does come back in stock on October 20th like Mjonir says than I should still be in the window to return the Recon3D.

Well, since they are already selling the Mixamp 2013 version with their headsets, I'd assume it won't be long until they restock them as stand-alone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerseyTiger

I have a hang up on buying used items, I very rarely do it so i would likely spend the extra money on a new item. Does the ohm versions of the DT-990 have significant difference in sound quality? What does the 600 ohm version offer besides the need of a large amp?

Look no further than just above your first post for a theoretical but official explanation from Beyer on this. On the practical side, you'll have to rely on reviews though.

JerseyTiger -> Trust him and ignore my suggestion on the equalizer then

MLE -> Oh, back on the DT990 Pro: May I ask why you'd choose them over the DT880 Pro?

Actually, I went with the Premium DT990.

As to why I prefer the DT990 over the DT880? Easy. Bass. I like bassy headphones. The DT990 are one of the very few open headphones that can compete with closed ones in terms of bass, and usually with higher quality (not quantity). The DT880s are well balanced, which isn't exactly what I want. I prefer fun sound, over balanced. In any case, the HE400 is the best of both worlds, both fun and balanced. Planar magic. Still, I want just a little more bass presence.

Thanks for the quick replies. I have a few follow-up questions from what you said. Does the E9K provide a bass boost or would it need a DAC docked to do this? I see a switch for gain but not boost. I like that it can be added to though, and if I get it and really like it I suppose I can add an E7 or E17. Do the Fiio amps come with everything that is needed to hook up, or do I have to by the wires separately?

The E9K doesn't have a bass boost. Desktop amps don't tend to. I have a feeling Fiio will bring out a desktop amp/dac with bass boost in the future. If you buy the E17, it has a bypass switch which then allows it to pass the bass/treble controls onto whatever amp it's connected to (easiest with the E9K, as it just has to be docked, or you have to buy the Fiio L7 so you can use it with other amps). You may have to buy an RCA male to 3.5mm male cable if you plan on attaching the E9K or other desktop amp to the Mixamp. They can be had for very cheap on Monoprice and possibly Amazon.

I knew that MixAmp was sold as stand alone, but it no longer is. Perhaps it is truely just sold out, you would know better than me. From the FAQ on the Astro site it seemed to me to be more of a decision by Astro to only sell it with the headset to push headset sales. Considering how popular the Mixamp is I can't believe they would stop production of the current model months before the release of their new model. Being that the sound card is the least expensive part of this set up I suppose I can get the Recon3D and be on the lookout for the Mixamp 3 or restocking of the current model. I just don't want to wait until 2013 to get all of this. If it does come back in stock on October 20th like Mjonir says than I should still be in the window to return the Recon3D.

The only one that you can't buy alone anymore is the Mixamp 5.8. The wired Mixamp will be sold alone. It's just out of stock at the moment. Give it time.

Quote:

I have a hang up on buying used items, I very rarely do it so i would likely spend the extra money on a new item. Does the ohm versions of the DT-990 have significant difference in sound quality? What does the 600 ohm version offer besides the need of a large amp?

Me too, but I have bought that very headphone used on Amazon, and it was in perfect condition. You just have to make sure, you buy it off Amazon Warehouse, and not some third party seller.

To quote myself on the ohm differences...

Quote:

update: My original review was for the 600ohm. I have recently been using the 32ohm version, and I must say, they're too much alike to consider them different headphones. There may be slight differences, but unless you have them side by side, they're very much the same headphone with different amping requirements. The 32ohm is a lot easier to drive, though they will still want at least portable amp to get the most out of them. The 32ohm I feel is the most versatile, with little tradeoff. Just make sure to buy an amp for it that has a low output impedance (4 ohms or less), as a higher output impedance may add to the already hot treble, and make the bass uncontrolled.

As for differences between the higher ohm DT990, the 32ohm is slightly less refined, and the soundstage is slightly smaller. It's a minor difference. One that wouldn't change my thoughts on it. I actually like the 32ohm version more. The 600ohm is slightly better overall, but to make it better than the 32ohm, you need a pretty good amp to bring out that potential. For most of us, the differences don't justify the hassle. Don't overlook the 32ohm, especially if you're not getting an ideal amp for 600ohm headphones. The 32ohm gets you 95% of the way there, with the benefit of being able to sound very good unamped, and better driven than the 600ohm on all but really good gear. You will still want an amp to bring out their sound quality, like the other Beyers on this guide.

About the Mixamp, the reason why it's not sold by itself at the moment is that all shops are restocking for the Mixamp 2013, you can find the first pictures and info in the very latest pages of this thread. I'm currently buying one and my seller told me that they should be available by October 20th for US and early November for EU.

What might really interest you is that the 2013 revision has a built-in equalizer with a few profiles that should be tweakable by connecting it to a PC. You could make your adjustments there and be free to consider transparent amplifiers :)

You will only miss DTS if you use your card to watch movies.

That's some awesome info right there thanks! I think I'm going to have to save up for the E17 though :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArdentWings

All good info and I may have to consider that, but I was also interested in the 80 ohm version as it may at some point be plugged into a smartphone. The 250 ohm would more than likely still have the same positional accuracy as the 80 ohm I assume? What exactly is the benefit/difference/reason to go with the different ohm choices anyway? (as a general question not specifically regarding the dt770)

Edit: Posted twice.

I will mention that even the 80 ohms DT770's sound very under powered from any non-amplified source. They 'work' on my iPhone but they suck, quite frankly :) If you don't have a portable amp then I would definitely advise against getting them for a smart phone or any device you can't power.

Actually, I went with the Premium DT990.
As to why I prefer the DT990 over the DT880? Easy. Bass. I like bassy headphones. The DT990 are one of the very few open headphones that can compete with closed ones in terms of bass, and usually with higher quality (not quantity). The DT880s are well balanced, which isn't exactly what I want. I prefer fun sound, over balanced. In any case, the HE400 is the best of both worlds, both fun and balanced. Planar magic. Still, I want just a little more bass presence.

Oh, I thought that the MANUFAKTUR line was based on Pro, not Premium. That must be why they don't offer different colors, it's already complicated enough like this :P

Also out of curiosity, did you have bad experiences with third-party sellers on Amazon? Only for used, or new headphones too?

I'm buying mine new from an Amazon's third party, but it's still time to change (my order was delayed, will have more info on Monday about how long...) ^^'

They still have a VERY GOOD used, for $186. Avoid the $126 one, as it's defective, lol. One dead driver, etc. Don't even know why they would bother putting it up on the site, instead of sending it to Beyer to fix it.

As for Amazon, I almost always buy new. This is the first headphone I have bought used on Amazon (well second, since I bought the same headphone a few weeks ago and returned it since I thought I was sticking to just the HE-400). I choose Amazon warehouse, because if anything is wrong with the headphone, you can return it with no hassle. The last time I bought the DT990/32 used, it was petty much in perfect condition, other than the box it came in being a bit mistreated.

BTW, Jerseytiger, I hope you realize the E17 is just a typical stereo amp. I'd much rather play with the Mixamp underamped, than with the E17 alone. Dolby Headphone is important to me. Going back to stereo is like putting blinders on.Edited by Mad Lust Envy - 10/6/12 at 8:51am

Thanks for the experienced opinion Paradux. I'm starting to consider just getting the AD-700s for tryhard FPS gaming and a pair of M50s for general use. Cost won't be a whole lot more than the DT770s and with those 2 phones I wouldn't need anything more than I already have in terms of amp and whatnot I don't think. I know my Xonar DG would power them both fine, would there be a noticeable difference in quality with a better amp/dac?

I'm still really uncertain about whether to try a DT770 with toned down bass for pro gaming or to just stick with the tried and true AD-700. I would really love to have the DT770 since I think it is something I would really enjoy listening to, but it's uses seem limited to me if it's not going to run off my smartphone (which honestly I wouldn't even do a whole lot of anyway, I may just skip the M50 for that purpose altogether). And I'm a little uncomfortable spending the $200 on them when I'm not sure they will stack up to the AD-700 with the targeted use of FPS gaming. They may be more fun, but I'm the type of guy who likes to make use of any possible advantage I can get. I like winning ;)

Originally Posted by JerseyTiger
I knew that MixAmp was sold as stand alone, but it no longer is. Perhaps it is truely just sold out, you would know better than me. From the FAQ on the Astro site it seemed to me to be more of a decision by Astro to only sell it with the headset to push headset sales. Considering how popular the Mixamp is I can't believe they would stop production of the current model months before the release of their new model. Being that the sound card is the least expensive part of this set up I suppose I can get the Recon3D and be on the lookout for the Mixamp 3 or restocking of the current model. I just don't want to wait until 2013 to get all of this. If it does come back in stock on October 20th like Mjonir says than I should still be in the window to return the Recon3D.

I have a hang up on buying used items, I very rarely do it so i would likely spend the extra money on a new item.

May I ask why? If the seller is proven trustworthy (through good feedback left by other buyers) and the product is shown to be in good condition, you can save quite a bit of money by buying used. It's your money, though.

As for the lack of DTS support, it's more likely to be an issue with movies than it is for games, since most console games seem to favor Dolby Digital for whatever reason. (Word is that Microsoft actually requires DD/AC3 support for all X360 games, though Sony makes no such demands out of PS3 developers.)

Thanks for the experienced opinion Paradux. I'm starting to consider just getting the AD-700s for tryhard FPS gaming and a pair of M50s for general use. Cost won't be a whole lot more than the DT770s and with those 2 phones I wouldn't need anything more than I already have in terms of amp and whatnot I don't think. I know my Xonar DG would power them both fine, would there be a noticeable difference in quality with a better amp/dac?

I'm still really uncertain about whether to try a DT770 with toned down bass for pro gaming or to just stick with the tried and true AD-700. I would really love to have the DT770 since I think it is something I would really enjoy listening to, but it's uses seem limited to me if it's not going to run off my smartphone (which honestly I wouldn't even do a whole lot of anyway, I may just skip the M50 for that purpose altogether). And I'm a little uncomfortable spending the $200 on them when I'm not sure they will stack up to the AD-700 with the targeted use of FPS gaming. They may be more fun, but I'm the type of guy who likes to make use of any possible advantage I can get. I like winning ;)

No problem. What I'm aiming for (strapped for cash at the moment!) is my DT770 pros paired with an E17 EQ so I can use it for competitive and fun gaming as well as music. I am aware that the AD-700's are pretty much the dogs for competitive and you'll not need much power behind them. The M50s aren't gonna be great with Dolby Headphone though since they are literally the reverse of the AD-700. Over here those two would set you back around £200 and whereas the DT770 plus E17 combo comes in at around £230, so for me I'd sooner have the better all rounder.

My Tony Bennet Signature Edition (TBSE) came last night and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed by the detail that they give to pretty much anything I listen to. The build quality is really nice too, after I pulled the pads off I was impressed by the hardware underneath. There is a lot of metal in the build and they are still pretty light, compared to my other plastic cans I can really feel the quality. They certainly don't feel like the ~$57 that I paid for them so its nice to know that I got more than I paid for. I would have liked to try plugging them into my Rotel receiver but the it just started pooping out on me the other day and I need to get it repaired. So for the time being I'm just using the Tritton decoder box (from my PC), I will try my PX5 here soon and let you know if I hear any differences.

Now don't laugh at me, but, after reading all the comments about how the pads from the M50 really expand the sound stage I decided to try out a couple of pairs that I have. I put my PX5 pads on them and it destroyed the sound, I'm sure that is no surpise for most of you but I had to try because they fit. Stock pads are the best at this point.

I forgot to let them burn in a little last night because by the time I went to bed my brain wasn't really functioning anymore. I did get the chance to try out a few different games to see how they worked with DH and they seems to function better than my other cans (all PC btw). Borderlands sounded good with positional ques coming in accurately and game sound was good. Mw3 was just meh but that nothing we didn't already know, positioning ques worked but not as good as Borderlands 2. Dark Souls was pretty bad but that could be because it is 3rd person or because is a pretty rough port.

Honestly listening to music while catching up on this thread the richer they seem to get, man the sound is awesome. I think I just need to let the titanium drivers burn in because music sounds awesome and each subsequent song seems to get better. Also, my music collection is mostly crappy quality I think the TBSE are good at pointing out crappy music, I'm sticking to my 320kbps or high vbr songs now. My wife is home this weekend so while she is off being a PA student this week I'll test out some more games, PC and Xbox.

I feel comfortable advising anyone that wants a nice pair of cans for ~$57 grab a pair of these while they are still on sale, I got mine here.

Sorry, but I'm short enough on cash right now to bother with buying any more headphones. If anything, I need to SELL things.

Also, it appears to be totally closed. I'm still wondering if there's a single completely closed (not even any bass ports or anything) headphone out there that isn't terrible for use with CMSS-3D Headphone or Dolby Headphone. The Uptown fails, the HTF600 passes, and while I've never heard the old Denon lineup (D2000/D5000/D7000), word is that those are ported around the earcups, hence the lack of isolation.

As for burn-in, I was pretty skeptical myself...until I got the HTF600. That thing's FR goes on a roller-coaster ride during the first several hours of burn-in, especially the bass.

On the other hand, word is that the Pro 900 has a very recessed midrange. You know me by now; I can tolerate a slight V-curve, but anything that makes vocals sound like they're in the back seat compared to the music is right out. (On the flip side, there's always EQ.)

Good news! I've found a local store in town that has at least a couple of the headphones I've been interested in. The DT770s are available in both 80 and 250 ohm versions as well as the M50s. These were the 2 I was most interested in hearing, I'm not sure how much else they carry (selection is somewhat limited) but it is enough to make me happy. I'm fine not hearing the AD700 since it's pretty obvious what it will be; tinny and flat sounding with very little bass but tons of clarity on detail. I know I won't enjoy them for recreational uses anyway but that they are top notch for competitive and that's all I really need to know. They would be a noticeable upgrade from my HTF-600 in terms of positional accuracy I assume. I'll be going out to try the dt770 and m50s after the long weekend though.

P.S. Canadian here. We don't have these "Guitar Centers" I keep hearing about to test things. The store I've found is also a guitar/instrument store though, called "Long and McQuade" does anyone know of any other places or ways to test headphones in Canada? I'm not sure if they will have a listening station set up but they have a solid full money back 30 day return policy. I will still most likely purchase online for cheaper from the US and ship to the border, drive across, and pick up. Unless there are better options.